By Nadine Tatge

Ethiopia is making great progress in measuring access to water and sanitation as well as inventorying all water schemes in the country through the National WASH Inventory (NWI).

Previous data collection methods using paper-based surveys were extremely time consuming, involved huge costs, and had a high error rate.

That is why the Government of Ethiopia has piloted the new data collection method using smart mobile phones in one of Ethiopia’s nine regions, the Somali Region.

The software used was developed by the Dutch foundation AKVO using the AKVO flow system. Despite battery charging and internet challenges in the region, the new technology has been proven successful. Trained enumerators would collect data from households and visit water points, entering the data directly into previously uploaded survey forms on the mobile phone.

Additionally, they save the exact GPS location of water points and take pictures of the water points. Huge amounts of data can be stored safely on mobile phones until the data is uploaded to a central online server (the cloud/dashboard). The transfer of data requires internet access through either a WiFi , 3G on the phone, or through a PC connected to the internet.

Everyone with granted access to the cloud/dashboard can view the data, extract it in Excel sheets, visualise the data in pie charts and graphs and most importantly see the exact location of water points on maps.

The experience from the Somali Region has shown that the use of smart mobile phones for data collection is time saving, accurate and cost efficient. The Government of Ethiopia has therefore decided to upscale the Somali experience to the rest of the country with the goal of having updated access of data for the NWI until June 2015.

Children in Leitchour refugee camp, Gambella region Ethiopia. Children are the most affected by the ongoing conflict in South Sudan. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Bizuwerk

NEW YORK, 20 June 2014 – “As violence plagues Syria and other countries across the region, record numbers of displaced children are seeking sanctuary in Europe, putting them at increased risk – both from the perils of the Mediterranean crossing and the uncertainty of what awaits them in host countries.  Many more child refugees are expected as ‘boat season’ increases the number of people attempting to make their desperate journey.

“Child refugees, many of whom are unaccompanied, are often detained in unsafe and unsuitable conditions.  They are also far more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and other violations of their rights.

“Every child is entitled to the protections set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child; few need them more than child refugees.  On World Refugee Day, UNICEF calls on governments to provide child refugees with the same care, services, dignity and protection as all other children.

“Through no fault of their own, these children have already lived through trauma beyond the ability of most people to endure; when they seek a safe haven, they should receive exactly that.”

See our Emergency and resilience page, for more refugees related resources

Ethiopia has come a long way, in development terms, since it adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of its national agenda. Remarkable achievements have been registered within various social wellbeing parameters. Most notably, the country has achieved MDG 4 – to reduce child mortality by two thirds – three years ahead of schedule. A lot remains to be done, however, particularly in reaching the most disadvantaged children – 3 million are out of school, 40 percent of under-fives are malnourished, only 7 percent of births are formally registered, less than one-third of pregnant women deliver in health facilities, key vaccinations are achieving less than 70 percent coverage and a high number of girls are being exposed to a variety of harmful traditional practices.

While Ethiopia is on track to achieving the majority of MDGs before the 2015 deadline, the involvement of stakeholders, such as religious leaders, is crucial. This is particularly true in reaching the most disadvantaged communities. In line with this premise, UNICEF held a consultative workshop with religious leaders on Monday, 23 June 2014, in Addis Ababa. The half-day workshop targeted the creation of shared values and common ground in bringing a more prosperous future to the children of Ethiopia.

“We aim today to begin a new conversation, enabling us to work together towards a common goal,” said Dr Peter Salama, UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia, whilst opening the workshop, further emphasising that religious institutions are able to reach out to communities at a grassroots level more effectively than any other social network. They are also instrumental in influencing positive behaviour and social norms, and thus working with these institutions is not considered as a second option. Dr. Salama spoke of the need to scale up UNICEF’s work with religious leaders on what they are uniquely positioned to achieve among their millions of followers – mobilisation for action in the wellbeing of children.

After a brief presentation of UNICEF’s guide on partnerships with religious communities and the situation of children in Ethiopia, the workshop continued with discussions centred around experiences and priority intervention areas.

Best Experiences Shared

The civic engagement of religious institutions in Ethiopia is commendable.  For instance, the experience shared by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church revealed that the church’s 42-year-old development wing has been actively involved in numerous developmental activities placing women and children at the centre of the issue. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-Church Aid Commission has developed declarations on gender based violence and harmful traditional practices, as well as safe motherhood.  What was interesting for participants was the church’s adoption of a “Development Bible”, which contains 360 daily teachings, incorporating over 45 contextualised messages. These include a focus on gender equality, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), maternal health, HIV/AIDS and Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs).

Similarly, the Ethiopian Muslim Supreme Council shared information of their work towards a “fatwa” (declaration) against FGM/C. A representative from the Council recounted how talking about FGM/C had been a taboo for religious fathers of previous years. However, leaders are now speaking out against the practice and bringing change in project areas. The Council also underlined the need to scale up the intervention, in order to stop the practice altogether. The experience of the Ethiopian Catholic Church in the development of the Child Protection Policy and the concept of ‘serving the whole person’ expressed by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church, Mekanyesus, and the Kale Hiwot Church, was also shared with participants.

Three umbrella Forums – the Ethiopian Interfaith Forum for Development Dialogue and Action, the Inter-Religious Council Ethiopia and the Evangelical Church Fellowship Ethiopia – also shared their experiences in mobilising member institutions in various projects. These included maternal and child health, peace building and HIV prevention. The efforts to mainstream the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and HTPs in theological schools was also highlighted.

Way Forward

In the past, UNICEF and other organisations predominantly worked with the development wing of religious institutions. However, it is recognised that this undermines the significant return of actively engaging in the spiritual wings. The spiritual wing reaches over 97% of the nation’s population through various religious structures, whilst the regional presence and coverage of development wings is dependent upon resources.

UNICEF is keen to work with both the spiritual and development wings of the major religious institutions and umbrella forums through a long term strategic partnership. UNICEF is also ready to provide technical support, policy advice and capacity building on the key child related interventions conducted by these institutions. The religious leaders have also reaffirmed their commitment to working with UNICEF.

Before the close of the workshop, participants agreed to form a small working group to develop the partnership framework.

The signing ceremony of Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2007 Work Plans with government was held on Monday 30^th June 2014 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Addis Ababa, facilitated by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

From right to left: Mr. Faustin Yao Representative of UNFPA in Ethiopia, Dr. Peter Salama, UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia, Mr. Eugene Owusu – UN resident coordinator and H.E. Mr. Ahmed Shide State Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. During the signing ceremony of Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2007 Work Plans ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Sewunet

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Ato Ahmed Shide, State Minister of Finance and Economic Development said that “the support rendered through the AWPs will be instrumental for the successful implementation of the current Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) of the Government as well as the next generation of the plan.” The Resident Coordinator of the UN Country Team in Ethiopia, Mr. Eugene Owusu, affirmed speaking on behalf of the UN Agencies that efforts and collaborations will be sustained at a continued scale during the coming years of the next UNDAF period.

Regional Implementing Partners and UN agencies including UNFPA, UNDP, UN Women, ILO and WFP were present as signatories.  Annual Working Plans (AWP) are prepared every two year following the Ethiopian Fiscal Year.  The preparation process starts in early March and follows a consultative approach at the regional and federal level.

By Sacha Westerbeek 

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, June 2014: As an integral part of enhancing staff capacity in programming and planning, UNICEF Ethiopia rolled out a Programme Planning Process (PPP) exercise, which successfully trained 189 staff members in little over a year.

“Kudos to the Addis Office for investing in its own staff with this office-wide training initiative,” Lou Mendez, facilitator, said during the closing ceremony. “It makes the dreams of Ethiopian children more attainable.”

The training – facilitated by a pool of selected experts from the UN and UNICEF, with an in-depth understanding of UNICEF and global development – aimed to equip staff with the knowledge and skills necessary to apply systematic tools of analysis in the programming process. These included understanding the UN’s coherent human rights based approach to programming, gender equality and mainstreaming.

In the context of Ethiopia, the focus on advocacy, gender, equity, environmental sustainability and resilience proved very useful, with staff members given practical tools to help apply these principles, approaches and “lenses” in everyday programming. In particular,  the session on gender proved to be a real eye-opener to many.

“I’ll need to start from home – change myself first on the concept of gender,” one staff member exclaimed.

“I was looking at myself while taking this training,” said another participant. “It is not only about PPP, it is about my life.”

PPP training, which brought together national and international staff members from Addis Ababa and eight regional offices, covered key steps on how to plan, implement, manage, monitor and evaluate the country programme in the context of the UN delivering as one. Some key sessions underpinning this included – barrier and bottleneck analysis; role and capacity gap analysis of rights’ holders and duty bearers at all levels of society; causal analysis; strategic prioritisation and strategy formulation; results based management and constructing well designed country programmes.

The PPP training also gave implementation sessions focussed on Partnership Cooperation Agreements (PCAs), Harmonised Cash Transfer (HACT), Audits, and Annual and Midterm reviews. Practical sessions on moving from the Country Programme Document to the Country Programme Management Plan (CPMP) were also conducted, along with key elements of sound programme management.

To maintain programmatic relevance, the PPP content is progressively updated to reflect any changes made in the UN Programme Policy and Procedures Manual (PPPM). Importantly, a special session was held on the last day of each workshop to brainstorm and develop specific plans on how to apply the content of the PPP training after the completion of the course.

The facilitators of the training were astounded by the active participation of staff and their strong commitment to learning. An evaluation of the training exercise revealed that the PPP learning objectives were largely met, with more than 98.5 per cent of participants indicating that the objectives were met either totally or to a very high degree.

The facilitators also recommended that future PPP training needs to be initiated in a 2-3 hour session with section chiefs and resource persons, in order to discuss key topics and objectives. Additionally, PPP workshops should be followed by a one or half day orientation for senior managers, including section chiefs, operations managers and the heads of field offices. This will help to garner the support of senior managers in the application of PPP principles and processes.

“Over the last year, nearly half of UNICEF Ethiopia staff have acquired improved knowledge and skills for programme planning and implementation from the perspective of human rights, equity, gender, results-based management, environmental sustainability and humanitarian action.” said Raana Syed, who facilitated six PPP trainings in Ethiopia. “Together, they can make a great difference in the improved fulfilment and protection of the rights of girls, boys and women in Ethiopia – with a focus on the most vulnerable.”

By Elshadai Negash

February 1st 2012 was supposed to be a regular school day for then-15 year old Gelane Degefa*. She started her day in Lugiatebela village, Sebeta Awas district, Oromia region, 25kms from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa; early by making a 30min journey to kick off the day with biology lessons in high school. Three more one-hour classes later, the school day was over and she was on her way home when she spotted a familiar, but disturbing sight from a distance.

“It was Kebede Chala,” she says of her neighbour who had dropped out of school a few years ago to work on his parents’ farm. “I knew immediately that I was in trouble.”

Kebede had persistently courted Degefa for more than 18 months before formally approaching her parents a year earlier to ask for her hand in marriage. “He used to say things like ‘what good would school be for you. I would provide you with everything if you marry me’,” she says. “I told him [Kebede] that I was too young to get married. My parents repeated the same thing when he asked them as well, but he refused to let go. My friends had overheard of his plans to abduct me. I told this to our headmaster. When he heard about this, he stopped bothering me for a while.”

A few minutes later, Kebede  and five of his friends grabbed her and tried their best to stifle her screams. “It was one of the worst days of my life,” she recalls. “But I was very fortunate. It was harvest collection season and some farmers heard my screams and came running to rescue me after we travelled for about 5km. When he and his friends were surrounded by the farmers, they ran away and I was able to escape.”

Picture not related to story

But her aggressor did not stop then. “A few weeks later, he sent elders to my school to complain that we were preventing him from marrying Aleme,” says Beyene Kebede, Degefa’s Chemistry teacher. “Our school director reported this to the police. They gave us hope and told us to inform them if there are any incidents involving Mosisa. He did not bother her from then on and she has been attending school this year without any problems.”

Degefa was not the first girl Kebede tried to abduct and force into early marriage. “He tried to abduct my friend Mergia Abebe, a girl I personally worked hard to convince her parents to allow her to go to school,” says Degefa, who is a member of the Girls Club at her school. “Her parents tried to get marry her to Mosisa, but we worked very hard to convince her to change their mind. She was in the second grade then, now she is a top student and just earned top marks when progressing to grade six.”

By “we”, Degefa is talking about a youth club supported by UNICEF to assist highly vulnerable children and prevent the abduction of school girls. Part of a five-year joint programme with UNICEF and the United Nations Fund for Populations Activities (UNFPA) and funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy (RNE) to Ethiopia, the rights-based approach to adolescents and youth development in Ethiopia has worked to prevent girls like Degefa and Abebe from getting married early after abduction and in some cases stopped marriages after parents had agreed to marry to children to abductors.

“Abduction is a major harmful traditional practice in our area,” says Abegaz Tadesse, UNICEF/UNFPA Joint Programme coordinator in the Sebeta Awas district’s health office. “Many of the abductors are not prosecuted because it is expensive for the families to open and then follow a case to completion. What we are doing with this joint programme is strengthen the support to girls who go to school by using youth clubs to make them aware of their rights and quickly report any approaches by abductors.”

Shebere Telila* is another recipient of the support that youth clubs in the district’s schools provided. The 15-year old, who finished as a second best student in her class this year, was repeatedly approached by older boys who asked her mother for her hand in marriage. “I have dreams of growing up and becoming an engineer to build big buildings and large bridges,” she says. “Now is not the time for me to get married. My mother also knows this and would tell this to people who came to ask for marriage.”

One particular boy, however, did not heed to this and would even brag to her neighbours how he would wait for her one day when she returns from school and make her his. “Whenever someone in our neighbourhood told me about this, I would feel freightened,” she says. “My brother used to walk me to and from school for a while, but I knew that this could not be done forever.”

But rather than staying frightened, Telila, now a member of the youth club in her school; decided to confront her aggressor. “I went to our headmaster’s office with our class prefect to tell him everything,” she says. “Our headmaster then wrote a letter to our kebele [village] office and they instructed him to stop. They called him for a meeting and made him write a letter in front of his friends and family promising that he would not lay hands on me. When I saw that he signed the letter, I was relieved. On his face, I saw the same fear that he would put me through. I knew he would not defy his family and friends to do something to me. I knew I was a free person.”

Today, Telila makes the 30-minute commute from her home to school without any fear that a creepy teenager would emerge from the obscure mountains to attack her. At school, she takes time from studies to discuss her experience with younger girls and give them confidence on how to protect themselves. “Some of the members of our club have been victims and so we know the signs,” she says about the peer-assist mechanism in place at the youth club. “We also visit parents at home to encourage girls to come to school regularly and ask them not to marry their children at a young age.”

And what does she advise other girls who get approached by boys for early marriage?

“To be young and pretty is not a crime. Rather, being quiet when someone is pushing you to get married is the crime. Come out and tell everyone about your problems. Do not keep quiet until it is too late. Just do what I did and seek help. If you do, there is plenty of it available.”

*Names have been changed to protect identity of the girls.

 By Indrias Getachew

Famia Abadir and Rasso Abdella are teenage girls living in Sheneni Village of Dujuma Kebele, located 20 kilometers outside of Dire Dawa town in Eastern Ethiopia. They both share dreams of attending university and working as professionals to advance the rights of girls and women. To succeed, however, they must overcome substantial hurdles. Poverty, traditional views on gender roles and the practice of child marriage threatens to derail their ambitions. Their experiences illustrate some of the challenges that girls, particularly in rural areas, face as they strive to achieve their right to an education.

“No one told me to go to school,” recalls Rasso. “I used to spend my time in the hills with my friends shepherding goats. Some of my friends went to school in the mornings. They would write what that they had learnt in school on stones using charcoal. They would write the alphabet and when they asked me what ‘A’ is, I didn’t know. I told them that I wanted to go to school but I couldn’t afford to buy books. They agreed to share their books with me. That is how I was able to start school. I now go up the mountain to collect wood and prepare charcoal. I then go to town and sell it so I can buy my exercise books – that is how I am able to go to school.”

Kerima Ali, Gender and AIDS Expert at the Dire Dawa Bureau of Education (left) Famia Abadir (midle) and Rasso Abdela (right) ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014Getachew

Overcoming economic hurdles is a challenge facing rural girls in their efforts to learn, however, the age-old practice of child marriage complicates things further.

In 2011, the dire warning by a rural religious leader that girls who didn’t marry that year would not be able to marry for the next seven years, set off a spate of child marriages that resulted in over 80 girls marrying and dropping out of Dujuma Primary School. Famia, 15 at the time, was one of them.

“I was a young student, still a child,” recalls Famia. “I was going to study with my friends and my cousin told me to come to her place as the elders were gathering there because she was going to get married. She took me from my home and handed me over to her uncle’s son to get me married to him. I did not want to get married. My wish was to go to school and learn, but they abducted and raped me and that is considered marriage. I had no choice.”

Famia Abadir, nine months pregnant ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Getachew

Famia missed an entire year of school after she was abducted and raped, twice, in what turned out to be failed attempts to marry her against her will and the consent of her parents.

The events in Dujuma in 2011 led to a focused campaign of awareness creation and community mobilisation to end the practice of early marriage. Community discussions aimed at convincing community members about the importance of girls’ education were carried out throughout rural Dire Dawa. Awareness was also raised about the harm caused by child marriages with a view to fostering a consensus to end the practice.

Currently, school clubs are promoting gender equality and empowering the school community to respond in time to prevent child marriages through coordination with local government. Elders and religious leaders are also being engaged to convince the community to abandon the practice of early marriage.

According to local authorities, the efforts to end the practice of early marriage in Dujuma and other rural districts of the Dire Dawa Administrative Region have been successful. Indeed, Dire Dawa has the second lowest regional child marriage rate in Ethiopia after Addis Ababa. The practice is far more widespread in Amhara, Tigray and Benishangul Regions (EDHS 2011).

Transforming age-old customs, however, takes time. Returning to Dujuma in 2013, we found Famia to be nine months pregnant. Famia had left her husband and was once again living with her parents.

“After I give birth I will leave the baby with my family and return to my studies,” says Famia. “Getting married is what did this to me so it is better that I go back to school. Marriage was not good for me.”

Rasso, on the other hand, evaded all pressure to get married and was able to finish eighth grade at Dujuma Primary. Today, she is enrolled in high school in Dire Dawa town, living at the Girls’ Hostel set up by the Dire Dawa Bureau of Education with UNICEF’s support. The hostel enables girls from rural communities with no access to school to continue with their education.

The Government of Ethiopia has made a commitment to eliminate child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Ethiopia by 2025.

His Excellency Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Demeke Mekonnen announced a package of action at a global summit in London, hosted jointly by the UK government and UNICEF.

World Leaders from across Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Europe attended the first Girl Summit on July 22^nd 2014. His Excellency DPM Mekonnen was speaking as part of a round-table discussion that included the Executive Director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake and the Commissioner for Social Affairs at the African Union Commission, Mustapha Sidiki Kaloko.

His Excellency DPM Mekonnen said:

“Our approach puts girls at the heart of our commitment, working closely with them, their families and communities, to end these practices for good and break the cycle of harmful traditional practices.”

He said that Ethiopia would achieve its goal by 2025 through a strategic, multi-sectoral approach and highlighted four areas where the government has promised to take action:

1. Through incorporating relevant indicators in the National Plan and the National Data Collection Mechanisms including the 2015 Demographic and Health Survey to measure the situation of FGM/C and Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) and to establish a clear bench mark
2. Through enhancing the coordination and effectiveness of the National Alliance to End Child Marriage and the National Network to End FGM by engaging different actors with key expertise
3. Through strong, accountable mechanisms for effective law enforcement
4. And, through an increase of 10% in financial resources to eliminate FGM/C and CEFM from the existing budget.

The Minister of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Her Excellency w/ro Zenebu Tadesse spoke about some of the achievements Ethiopia has made in recent years. She said the national rate of FGM has decreased by half among girls aged 14 and under, from 52% in 2000, to 23% in 2011 and the national prevalence of child marriage has declined from 33.1% in 1997, to 21.4% in 2010. 

Her Excellency Minister Tadesse said:

“I am proud of our achievements and I would like to share with you our experiences with the hope of inspiring other nations to take decisive, robust action.”

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“All girls have the right to live free from violence and coercion, without being forced into marriage or the lifelong physical and psychological effects of female genital mutilation. Abhorrent practices like these, no matter how deeply rooted in societies, violate the rights of girls and women across the world. I am hosting the Girl Summit today so that we say with one voice – let’s end these practices once and for all.”

The Summit brought together young people, community members, activists, traditional and faith leaders, government and international leaders, experts and champions committed to the rights and empowerment of women and girls.

Attendees heard from girls and women who have lived through child, early and forced marriage and FGM/C, and from inspiring individuals who are now campaigning for change so that others can enjoy greater opportunities in the future.

14-year-old year-old Yeshalem from the Amhara region of Ethiopia underwent FGM/C when she was aged three – and shortly after, she was married to a man 15 years older than her.

Yeshalem said: “After the wedding, I was immediately sent to live with my husband and his parents. My husband said to my family ‘she’s too young’ and eventually I was allowed to return to my own family.”

Her father tried to marry her again, but Yeshalem told her teacher and eventually her father allowed her to continue her education. Yeshalem is now in a girls’ club that empowers girls to involve teachers and the police when they hear about threats of child marriage.

“We also have a secret box in our school where you can write down if somebody in the community is going to be married early – or cut – and we can report it, and try to stop it.”

Her Excellency Minister Tadesse said:

“Yeshalem’s story and the thousands like her, is what is powering Ethiopia’s efforts to change societal attitudes and behaviours towards girls in Ethiopia. At this Summit, we must make it our collective duty to support Yeshalem and girls like her around the world – because they are the ones who are creating lasting change.”

In Ethiopia, according to the 2011 Welfare Monitoring Survey (WMS) report, 23 per cent of female children aged 0 to 14 years had undergone female genital cutting at national level. The regional distribution of FGM/C varies highly from the lowest 7 per cent in Gambela region to the highest 60 percent in Afar region. Next to Afar region, Amhara and Somali regions have the highest percentage of FGM/C, which is 47 per cent and 31per cent respectively. As a result of the ongoing commitment of the Government, Ethiopia is witnessing a number of promising results that are galvanizing stakeholders to intensify their efforts:

By Elissa Jobson

Crowd of around 100 children, some as young as 6 or 7 years of age, who have gathered outside the chicken-wire fence of the school compound in Kule refugee camp demand to be allowed onto the school’s premise 23, June 2014 Kule South Sudanese refugee camp Gambella Ethiopia. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

GAMBELLA, ETHIOPIA, 25 JUNE 2014 – “School is good for the boy and the girl,” sings ten-year old Nyanget Tohok, her voice, cutting through the midday humidity, rings out clean and clear. “SCHOOL IS GOOD FOR THE BOY AND THE GIRL,” chorus the crowd of around 100 children, some as young as 6 or 7 years of age, who have gathered outside the chicken-wire fence of the school compound in Kule refugee camp.

They have not come for lessons. They are not there to collect their schoolbooks. They are there to demand their right to an education. “We are singing for school,” says Nyanget. “We need to learn but there is no space.” The school only has room for 1,200 children but more than 6,000 students registered and are waiting to enrol when the space allows. The exiting places were allocated on a first come, first served basis.

“When we don’t come to school we cannot be happy. We have seen our friends coming to school but we are not given a chance to learn,” laments Majiok Yien, aged 9. This young boy wants to be an English teacher but his dream has been violently interrupted by the civil war raging in South Sudan, which forced him and his family to seek refuge in Ethiopia.

On land provided by UNHCR and the Ethiopian Administration for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA), four 6m x 4m classrooms have been built by Save the Children with vital support from UNICEF. The school operates two shifts: one in the morning from 8am to 12pm and a second from 1.30pm-5.30pm. The class sizes are huge – 150 children each – and the whole curriculum is being taught by just 10 teachers, all recruited from the refugee community.

Returning to normality

South Sudan Refugee Students attend a class in a makeshift classroom 25, June 2014 Kule South Sudanese refugee camp Gambella Ethiopia. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

“School is important for the children. When they are in school they forget what they have seen in the war. School is the first priority to help remind them of normal life,” explains School Director Lam Chuoth Gach, himself an exile from South Sudan’s bloody conflict. The students have been through a terrible ordeal, he adds. They have seen people – for some their parents and siblings – killed directly in front of them. They remember the sounds of the bullets and the long, arduous journey to safety in Gambella. “When we started classes it was difficult to bring their attention to the teaching but now they are listening,” Mr Gach continues. “That is why are worried about the children who are not yet in school.”

Jael Shisanya, Education Adviser for Save the Children feels that the teachers are doing a good job under extremely difficult circumstances. “They are lesson planning and they have written a timetable but the challenge we have is that the numbers of students are overwhelming. We don’t have adequate space,” she says pointing to the four tents made of wooden poles and plastic sheeting that serve as classrooms. Early childhood education is taking place under a tree which doubles as a church on Sundays, Ms Shisanya says, but if classes are to continue during the imminent rainy season a more suitable location will have to be found. “Funding is an issue. We could do much more. We could build better structures. But we need more money for education,” she insists.

“The children are eager to learn and the community itself is yearning for school. ‘We can look for food but we can’t easily get education for our children,’ the parents tell me. They don’t want their children to forget what they have learnt,” Ms Shisanya says.

Adolescents not catered for

14 year old Buya Gatbel. He is one of the lucky few who have secured a coveted place in a makeshift classroom in Kule South Sudanese refugee camp Gambella Ethiopia, 25 June 2014 . ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

For the children themselves, education is a lifestyle, an essential part of their weekly routine. “I need to go to school. On Sunday I must go to church and on Monday I must go to school,” asserts 14 year old Buya Gatbel. He is one of the lucky few who have secured a coveted place. Buya is happy to be in school but he wishes that the situation was better. “There are no desks. The classroom is very small. We need pens, uniforms, bags and umbrellas for when it rains. There are no exercise books or text books and many children are outside. You need to build more schools, and build a library,” he says.

Currently the school is only teaching grades one to four. “I’m studying grade four but it is not really my grade,” Buya explains – in South Sudan he was in grade eight. His best friend, Changkuoth Chot, aged 18, is in the same boat. “I want to go to grade eight but it is better to be in grade four than to not be in school,” he says.

Ms Shisanya is particularly concerned about those adolescents that are not currently in education: “Teenagers are saying they are so depressed. There is no work.” There is no school.” Tezra Masini, Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Gambella, is also worried. “Donors are more interested in providing education for younger children but it is protection issue for the older ones. If we don’t provide them with school they may go back to South Sudan to fight.”

Dech Khoat, age 19, bears these fears out. He joined the rebel White Army when the conflict began in December last year. “I’ve come for a rest from the fighting,” he says. In the future I will go back but if I can continue my education I will stay in the camp.”

Click here for latest update on South Sudan refugees status in Ethiopia.

By Elissa Jobson

South Sudan refugees cross the Baro river, which is the border between South Sudan and Ethiopia. Crossing the river means that they have reached Burebiey entry point in Gambella, Ethiopia . ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Sewunet

GAMBELA, ETHIOPIA, 27 JUNE 2014 – The swollen Baro river marks the border between Ethiopia and it western neighbour, South Sudan. It’s fast-flowing waters are all that stand between those fleeing the brutal civil war in their home country and safety in Gambella. Dotted along the banks on the South Sudanese side are men, women and children, clutching their meagre possessions, waiting to be transported across the muddy-brown waterway in white plastic canoes. With battered suitcases and woven baskets on their head, those refugees – dusty, exhausted and in need of food and water – who have successfully made the river-crossing trudge towards Burebiey and the UNHCR registration tent, half a kilometre away.

Deng Gatek spent three days waiting to cross the Baro as he tried to scrape together the 30 birr (USD$1.5) fee he needed to secure passage for himself, his wife and his four children. He silently fills his yellow plastic jerry can with crystal clear water from UNICEF’s EM-Wat (emergency water) facility.

“We walked through the bush with hyenas and snakes. Many bad things happened,” Mr Gatek recalls, weariness and relief etched on his face. He can’t remember how many days the journey took from his home in Walang, in Jonglei State, to the border. “It was difficult to find water on the way. When we arrived at the border we were able to drink the river water. The water from the tap is much better than the river water – there is no dirt in it. I can take clean water to my wife and children now. They are at the registration centre,” he adds, pointing to a clutch of tents in the distance.

David Luk Both, himself a refugee from South Sudan, is in charge of the EM-Wat treatment plant. Here he tests quality of the water pumped out of the river before going through the process making it ready for drinking. 26, June 2014 Burbiey South Sudanese Refugees Reception Centre in Gambella, Ethiopia. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

David Luk Both, himself a refugee from South Sudan, is in charge of the EM-Wat treatment plant. Before the fighting broke out he had worked as a technician for MSF Holland for seven years. “The water is pumped from the river Baro into two 12,000 litre sedimentation tanks,” Mr Both explains. “The water sits in the tank until all the debris and mud has sunk to the bottom; aluminium sulphate is added to help the process. The pH of the water is tested to check the levels of acidity before it is pumped into a chlorination tank that kills all the bugs and germs in the water. It is then ready to drink.”

If needed, Mr Both and his team can provide up to 36,000 litres of clear water a day. “The refugees come all day to the taps. If I don’t treat the water they can’t drink it. I’m very happy because I’m helping my people,” he says.

Conflict prevention

More than 147,000 South Sudanese asylum seekers have arrived in Gambella since fighting erupted in Juba in December last year. This has placed a tremendous burden on local authorities which were already stretched – Gambella is one of the poorest regions in one of the most food insecure countries in the world, and was host to around 76,000 refugees from South Sudan before the current influx began.

Pel Puoch is head of the Water, Energy and Resources Office in Mokoey woreda (district). Nyien Nyang town, close to Leitchor refugee camp, is under his responsibility. “Before the provision of shallow wells in Leitchor camp, the refugees had started to use the water pumps in Nyien Nyang. This created a burden for the community,” Mr Puoch says. “UNICEF immediately understood the problem and increased its support to the wordea and the burden has been greatly reduced.”

This year UNICEF has installed 9 pumps in Nyien Nyang. There are 35 in total, serving a population of around 18,000, nearly half of which were constructed by UNICEF, including two at the local the hospital.

“The focus of all the NGOs and UN agencies has been on the refugees. At UNICEF, our focus is always on both the host community and the asylum seekers,” says Basazin Minda, WASH officer. “We identified the burden on the local services at an early stage and decided to increase the number of shallow wells in the area in order to create a balance between the host community and refugees.” He believes that the creation of the additional shallow wells and pumps has prevented potential conflicts over this precious resource between the indigenous community and the refugees they have provided sanctuary too.

A new lease of life

Mr Puoch has seen many benefits from the construction of water pumps in the heart of the community. “Having the pumps close to their homes means that the women will save time collecting water. Previously, when they had to go to a faraway pump they would not use the water for hygiene. But because they can access water in the local area at any time, sanitation has improved,” he insists.

“When the pumps were some distance away they would break often. Now they are close to the homes the community takes better care of them.

At Dobrar village, Nyarout Jok, a mother of four, uses the UNICEF water pump twice a day. It’s just 300m away from her home and fetching water now takes less than 20 minutes a day. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Ayene

At Dobrar village, Nyarout Jok, a mother of four, uses the UNICEF water pump twice a day. It’s just 300m away from her home and fetching water now takes less than 20 minutes a day. Before the tap was installed she had to walk over a kilometre each way to the nearest water source, which took at least an hour. “I use the extra time to grind flour and take care of my children,” she says. “I have also returned to education. I’m a grade 5 student.”

So why did she decide to go back to school? “I need to do my own job,” she says. “I will be able to earn my own income and I will become more confident. I want to be either a doctor or an engineer.”

Click here for latest update on South Sudan refugees status in Ethiopia.

Somali Region, Ethiopia, 12 May, 2014 – Ethiopia kicked off a polio vaccination campaign on 3 October 2013, targeting 13 million children across the country following an emergency response that began in the Dollo Ado refugee camps in June 2013.

In July 2013, Ethiopia Reports First Wild Poliovirus Case Since 2008.

Ayan Yasin, a four-year-old girl, was one of the first confirmed polio cases in Ethiopia. Ayan lives with her father and mother, a typical pastoralist family, in their house, made of tin, wood and woven bed sheets in a remote secluded area three kilometers from Geladi Woreda in Ethiopia’s Somali Region. Living next to the Somalia border means that the family move frequently between Ethiopia and Somalia – making routine immunisation practices difficult.

When Ayan fell sick, her father took her to the nearest hospital in Somalia where he was told there was very little hope. After many visits to various health posts, Hergeisa Hospital finally confirmed she had Polio. “We call this illness the disease of the wind. We know that there is no cure for it, and that it can paralyse and even cause death. My daughter hasn’t died but it has disabled her forever,” says her father.

Bukhari Shiekh Aden of UNICEF helps in moving polio vaccines of an airplane which just arrived in Warder district, Somali region of Ethiopia for a campaign as a response of a recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2013/Sewunet

Close to 50,000 health workers and volunteers and 16,000 social mobilisers have been deployed all over the country as part of a campaign that includes remote and hard to access areas. With the support of the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), UNICEF has procured vaccines to support immunisation efforts particularly for children and the refugee population being hosted in the Somali Region. In total, 135,000 vials or 2.7 million doses of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) were procured to immunise 2.43 million children with a polio vaccine – a critical input to immunisation activities in the Somali Region and Polio high-risk areas. The support from ECHO has also helped to airlift the Polio vaccine to hard-to-reach zones of Afder, Gode and Dollo in the Somali Region.

Synchronised cross-border polio outbreak preparedness and response

Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIAs) were conducted in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti to accelerate progress towards ending Polio in the Horn of Africa. The synchronised SIAs were an outcome of the Horn of Africa Countries Cross-Border Polio Outbreak Preparedness and Response Meeting in Jigjiga, from 21 to 23 May 2014, where Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti agreed to strengthen cross-border collaboration to eradicate polio from the Horn of Africa.

To reinforce support and strengthen Polio eradication efforts in the Somali Region, a high-level delegation consisting of Dr Kebede Worku, State Minister of Health, Mr Abdufatah Mohammed Hassen, Vice President of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State and Head of the Somali Regional Health Bureau, Dr Pierre M’Pele-Kilebou, WHO Representative to Ethiopia, and Dr Willis Ogutu, Head of UNICEF programme in Somali Region, visited Warder in Dollo Zone, the epicentre of the wild polio virus outbreak in Ethiopia, on 14 June 2014. The delegation, together with the Warder Zonal Administration, launched the ninth round of Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIAs) in the outbreak zone and formally inaugurated the Zonal Polio Outbreak Command Post, which had been established in April 2014 to improve coordination of response activities.

Polio vaccination in the Somali region of Ethiopia, as a response of a recent polio outbreak in the Horn of Africa ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2014/Sewunet

Sustained interventions to ensure long-term success

While the campaigns to vaccinate children against Polio in the Somali Region have been going well, ensuring long-term success in eliminating the disease will require sustained interventions.

Abdufatah Mohammud Hassen believes the best solution is to immunise every child and ramp up routine immunisation activities in the region. “The campaigns are just to stop the emergency but the main thing that we are doing is to reach every child by strengthening the routine EPI and ensuring that the health facilities have the capacity to respond to the demands of the public”

With the help of developing partners like ECHO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rotary International and the Crown Prince of Dubai, UNICEF together with the Ministry of Health is continuing its efforts so that young children like Ayan Yasin living in the region are protected from the disabling symptoms of the Polio disease.

By Frehiwot Yilma

SOMALI REGION– Yahas Jamal is a village located 20 kilometres from the town of Gode, its residents live along the banks of Shebelle River. Although the village is situated close to the river, fetching water is a hazardous task requiring the person to risk attack from basking crocodiles. It is because of these crocodiles that the village got the name Yahas (meaning crocodile in Somali). Fortunately, UNICEF, through the Development Regional States (DRS) Joint-UN Programme, has started constructing river intakes in Yahas Jamal and Sankabar villages to improve safe access to water.

Fartun Hassan, 25, mother of 4, pour water for cooking in Yahas-Jamal Keble in Somali region of Ethiopia. This village which is ODF (Open Defecation Free), is waiting for the completion of water intake project to have a regular access to water.

Fartun Hassan, 25, has four children. Besides her household chores she supports her husband through farming and looking after cattle. Every day she undertakes a two-hour journey to reach the river to bring water back to her family. “Luckily I have two donkeys so I only go once a day to fetch water. I bring four jerry cans and it is enough for the day. I know people who have been eaten by crocodiles and most people have lost sheep and goats. I am scared every time I go to the river,” she says. “When they finish this water project, I hear that we will have clean water in the community and our children will not get sick. I wish that it will be completed soon,” she says. Istahil Sohane, 28, has four children. She needs to go the river twice a day because she only has one donkey. “I am eagerly waiting for the river project to finish so I do not have to go to the river twice in one day, which is very tiresome. I cannot send my children sometimes when I am tired because I worry the crocodiles will eat them. Better me than them.” Getting water is costly for those who do not have the means to truck water. At the moment people are paying between 10 to 20 USD per month. When finished, the Yahas Jamal river intake will provide a reliable service to 300 households in the area, while the cost of water will reduce to only two or three USD per month.

Emergency treatment mechanism for day-to-day use

Seada Sheik Abudi, 30, mother of 5, fetches water at a water point in Debaldek Village in Ber’aano Woreda by Shebele River in Somali region of Ethiopia. This water was treated with the emergency system which was set up several years ago but the habitants are still using it to fetch water.

Near Yahas Jamal is a small village of Debaldek. The villagers still use the Emergency Water Treatment System (EMWAT KIT). Although the treatment is no longer available they use the system to avoid crocodiles. Seada Sheik Abdi, 30, has five children and is fetching water using the EMWAT kit. “It’s better to get water here. It is safer. We are not worried that our family will be attacked by the crocodile,” she says. “If there was clean water I would not have to make four trips here in a day. I need eight jerry cans of water, which takes up the majority of my time.” The district administrator, Aden Mohammed Gile, acknowledges the need for a more reliable water supply: “We would like to move the community to a more sustainable water supply. But currently we have no other alternative and we are waiting for the river intake project to finish. There are other villages far from the river intake and they are also using the EMWAT kit for daily water use, we really need more resources to provide to every village,” he emphasises.

Sustainable technologies for resilience

Today, UNICEF is developing a mitigation plan in the Somali Region to deliver a sustainable supply of water by tapping into existing water sources that will provide an adequate quantity and quality of water throughout the year.

Filtering tanks are filled with gravels inside one of 3 filtering tanks of a river intake construction by Shebele River in Yahas-Jamal Kebele in Somali region.

Besides the emergency response to seasonal flooding or drought, UNICEF is focusing on making its WASH programmes resilient. “The river intake programme in Yahas Jamal and Sankabar when complete will support around 1,300 households and is one of the means to provide clean water to the people. But we need more funds to construct more river intakes in villages along the Shebelle river basin so people living close to a water resource do not have to struggle with crocodiles and disease,” says Samuel Godfrey, UNICEF Chief of WASH.

In the coming few months, Yahas Jamal and Sankabar villages will have clean water. Other villages are waiting to see if the time will also come for them to also get the new infrastructure. But for now, Istahil and her neighbours have to endure the time consuming and life endangering task of fetching water like the rest of the women in the villages.

The Danish Government has been providing support to the Justice for Children programme, through UNICEF Ethiopia, since June 2007. On June 20, 2014, the Danish Ambassador to Ethiopia, Mr Stephan Schønemann, and the Deputy Head of Mission, Mrs Lotte Machon, visited Adama to gain an insight into the Child Protection services provided to women and children.

The Child-Friendly Justice Programme is designed and implemented by governmental and non-governmental partner organisations, with technical and financial support from UNICEF. At governmental level, the Programme is jointly coordinated and implemented by the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Ministry of Justice, and regional supreme courts and bureaus of justice, in close collaboration with institutions involved in the justice, health, social and education sectors, as well as civil society organisations.

At the Adama zonal police station, the visitors met with Inspector Shitu Likisa and Ms Welansa Negash – focal persons of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) for the Oromia Region and the Adama zonal police station, respectively. They explained the objectives and processes of the CPU, as well as the challenges faced in the day-to-day work.

The Child Protection Unit aims to improve the treatment of children by law enforcement organs, whilst ensuring alternatives to custodial measures in the treatment of young offenders. It was established within the compounds of the Adama town police station, as a separate block close to the outside gates. The CPU contains three furnished rooms, which are used for the investigation of cases, as well as providing distinct temporary accommodation, including toilet facilities, separately for boys and girls. It is staffed by one female police officer and one social worker, the latter of which is also responsible for the child friendly bench and child friendly court at the Adama High Court. The police officer was provided with specialised training on the legal, operational and psychological aspects of the work.

Mr. Stephan Schønemann, Ambassador of the Royal Danish Embassy discussing with Ato Bojja Taddesse, Oromia Supreme Court Vice President

Despite UNICEF’s investments into the CPU, in the form of training and stationary, as well as the renovation and furnishing of both the investigation rooms and accommodation, there are still remaining gaps to be filled.

“When we find or receive very young children who need our support, we do not have a dedicated place for them to stay. Either myself or other police officers take the babies home because they need food and special care,” Welansa explains. “Also, feeding the children who are in our care is a big issue, as there is no budget allocated for this.”

Adama is a big town, with a large population of children. Some come by themselves to seek work or a better quality of life, but many are brought by brokers and child traffickers. The Adama community is well aware of the CPU and, through their active engagement, children are brought in to be assisted by the Family Tracing and Reunification Services or social workers, and possibly directed to legal and/or medical aid.

“Presently, we have one boy in our care. He came from the Tigray Region with his older brother, who was depriving him of food and beating him. The young boy, who is about 11 years old, ran away and ended up alone on the streets,” the police officer continued. “He came to our unit and now we are helping to take him back to his family – that is his wish.”

Since the unit opened, they have helped around 570 children to reunite with their families.

Children in contact with the law are provided with a safe sleeping space and special treatment, without having to mix with adult offenders. Their parents are immediately contacted, and both the social worker and police officer (female officer) provide counselling and investigation. This results in a decision either for release into the care of their parents/guardians; referral to the community-based diversion programme or to present them to the child friendly bench. Psychosocial services, in the form of counselling, shelter, medical care etc, are provided to child victims and alleged offenders using the referral pathway that was made operational in the town with the support of UNICEF.

The next place visited by the team, accompanied by UNICEF staff members, was the OneStop Centre, located at the Adama Referral Hospital. The One Stop Centre was introduced in 2013 and aims to provide timely and comprehensive legal, medical and counselling services to survivors of violence, thereby minimising secondary victimisation. It also facilitates the proper collection and preservation of evidence, leading to improved rates of prosecution and conviction, and a reduction in the cycle time for finalising cases on violence against women and children (VAWC).The Centre was set up inside the premises of the Adama Referral Hospital in a secluded block, in order to maintain the privacy of beneficiaries. The Centre is staffed by four prosecutors and four female investigation police officers who work on a rotational basis. Clinical and counselling services are managed by a medical doctor, nurse and psychiatrist, who are deployed by the Hospital. The overall management of the Centre is entrusted to top level inter-agency team, comprising of representatives from the Regional Bureau of Justice; the Regional Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs; the Regional Bureau of Health; the Regional Supreme Court and the Regional Police Commission.

“This centre deals with about one to two cases per day and, by deploying female police officers, we prevent the victims from secondary victimisation,” explains Zewdu Mulugeta, prosecutor at the Bureau of Justice, Adama

One of the recent cases to come to this office was the attempted rape of a five-year-old girl. The perpetrator was given a 14-year prison sentence.

Equipped with new knowledge and insights about the functioning of the One-Stop Centre, the Danish diplomats were taken to the Adama High Court to visit the Child Friendly Benches (for both child victims and alleged child offenders). Here, Emebet Hailu, a social worker, explained the functioning of the Child-friendly Bench, which was established inside the premises of the Adama Zonal Court to adjudicate cases involving child victims and witnesses, as well as alleged child offenders. The initiative entails a specially designed and well-equipped courtroom, which hears cases involving child victims and witnesses of violence. This includes the added security of close-circuit cameras. The separate room is specially designed in a child-friendly setting, in order to put children at ease and provide testimony without facing the alleged perpetrator. The child sitting in the special room is assisted by an intermediary, transmitting the questions forwarded from the main courtroom to the child and the responses of the child are then transmitted back to the courtroom. The sessions are closed, with only a selected audience allowed to take part in the proceedings. The Child-friendly Bench aims to protect child and women victims of sexual violence from secondary victimisation during the judicial process and to enable them to give their testimonies freely and comfortably in a child-sensitive environment.

In the case of alleged child offenders, the child-friendly bench has a unique courtroom setting, which is adapted to simulate environments familiar to the children in schools and with families. Instead of the raised platform and assigned positions for judges, the prosecution and the accused, everyone sits around the same table. In addition to the child-friendly physical setting, the hearing process is managed in an informal and non-adversarial atmosphere, avoiding the use of technical language and the wearing of robes by judges, prosecutors and legal representatives.

Children who appear before the special bench and police units, and require family tracing, reunification and reintegration services are identified and referred to the Regional Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs (BOWCYA).

A child plays in child friendly bench in Adama high court

At the High Court, the visiting team met and discussed with the Vice-President of the Regional Supreme Court, the President of Adama High Court, the Adama University, who provide free legal aid, and the child friendly justice steering Committee. Mr Schønemann also had the opportunity to discuss with male and female litigants in the court. A father explained how the Court had helped him to gain custody over his three eldest children and that now he is trying to obtain custody over his youngest, who is under five years of age and still with the mother.

There was also the disheartening case of a woman, who came with her 17year-old daughter and new-born granddaughter. The daughter was raped by the landlord of her family home and gave birth to a child as a result. The perpetrator intimidated the girl not to implicate him within the incident. Both the mother and grandmother of the new-born child are terrified, but sued the perpetrator for the cost of a DNA test to prove that he is the father and therefore required to pay maintenance for his child. The DNA test is very costly – about ETB 3000 (US$ 180) for women. The family is poor and does not have the funds to pay for this. Through the service provided by the Court, they are now trying to put in an application for DNA testing.

The Ambassador thanked the Court staff and partners for their important work and addressed the questions raised on capacity development and additional resource allocation to bridge existing gaps and strengthen the child justice system.

As a result of UNICEF’s partnership with the Regional Supreme Court, the Regional Police Commission and the Regional Bureau of Justice, the Child Protection Unit (CPU) and the child friendly benches in Adama Town were further expanded into six other towns in the Oromia Region – Sabata, Sululta,Wolisso,Jimma, Nekemte and Ambo) in 2013. Presently, UNICEF is supporting seven zones in the Oromia Region; and, while this is a good start, the expansion of child friendly justice services into additional zonal and woreda (district) towns is recommended. In addition, UNICEF highlights that the next steps will focus on the provision of in-service training to newly assigned justice and social welfare personnel; the strengthening of legal aid services managed by the university legal aid clinic; the strengthening of the community based diversion facility and improvements to the child justice data management system.

By Simon Odong

Kule Refugee Camp, Gambella, September 11, 2014- While the Americans were commemorating the 13^th anniversary of 9/11 attack  on the world trade centre, the Ethiopians celebrated their 2007 new year day, we were with the South Sudanese Refugees in Kule settlement camp turning swamp water into safe drinking (portable) water.

Kule Refugee camp, opened in May 2015 and it  is home to over 50,000 refugees who fled from South Sudan due to conflict. The recent rains in Gambella coupled with run-off from the high lands channelled through Baro River, have already caused widespread flooding in Lietchuor Refugee Camp and Itang Town. The same rains have rendered most roads in Kule and Tierkidi Refugee camps making them inaccessible by large trucks. This means, nearly half of the population in Kule cannot be served with portable water through water trucking.As a result, women and children had to walk between two to four Kilometres to the nearest water point within the camp, while others resorted to drinking surface water.

© UNICEF Ethiopia/2012/Odong A Refugee Woman Draws water from the Swamp on September 11 before completion of emergency water treatment installation

In Response to this, The UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR), have ordered an immediate repair of all roads starting with the overburdened spots. While the roads are being fixed by Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam with support from UNICEF, today installed an emergency water treatment kit (EmWat) to minimise the health risks of using surface water and to reduce the burden of women, boys and girls hauling water over long distances.

The EmWat kit is donated by UNICEF, installed by Oxfam with technical support from UNICEF and UNHCR. As a stop-gap measure it will provide safe drinking water to some 12,000 refugees residing in the hard to reach portion of the. Until a time when the in-camp roads are accessible by water trucks. The kit works on the principles of aided sedimentation, filtration and disinfection before distribution through a tap stand connected to a raised storage tank.

© UNICEF Ethiopia/2012/Odong EmWat kit sedimentation tank

The long term solution to this problem however, is the construction of a piped water scheme. With an estimated US$2.5Millions, UNICEF is supporting this sustainable solution through designing the system; construction of water reservoir tanks and technical support to partners implementing the other portion of the system. Once completed, between April and May 2015, it will serve some 120,000 persons including the surrounding host communities of the two camps (Kule and Tierkidi).

In the WASH sector, UNICEF is supporting the Gambella operation in emergency areas such as this by pre-positioning essential supplies and equipment; support to sector coordination; mitigating the effects of the displacement on the host communities; looking beyond the emergency and providing ad-hoc technical support to partners.

© UNICEF Ethiopia/2012/Odong Refugees accessing clean portable water from the EmWat Kit

One refugee woman had this to say after fetching water from the installed kit, “Yesterday was my first day to drink water from this swamp after I felt tired of walking to Zone C, why didn’t you people bring this thing (meaning Emwat Kit) yesterday?”  This was how we spent our Ethiopian New Year, thanks to Oxfam who is now running the kit.

Analysis points to health system failures at critical time around birth as a significant contributing factor to these needless deaths

New York, 16 September 2014 – Child survival rates have increased dramatically since 1990, during which time the absolute number of under-five deaths has been slashed in half from 12.7 million to 6.3 million, according to a report released today by UNICEF.
The 2014 Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed progress report, indicates that the first 28 days of a newborn’s life are the most vulnerable with almost 2.8 million babies dying each year during this period. One million of them don’t even live to see their second day of life.

Many of these deaths could be easily prevented with simple, cost-effective interventions before, during and immediately after birth.

Analysis points to failures in the health system during the critical time around delivery as a significant contributing factor to these unnecessary deaths. It also shows that there is considerable variation – from country to country and between rich and poor – in the take-up and quality of health services available to pregnant women and their babies.

Key findings in this study include:

• Around half of all women do not receive the recommended minimum of four antenatal care visits during their pregnancy.
• Complications during labour and delivery are responsible for around one quarter of all neonatal deaths worldwide. In 2012, 1 in 3 babies (approximately 44 million) entered the world without adequate medical support.
• Evidence shows that initiating breastfeeding within one hour of birth reduces the risk of neonatal death by 44 per cent, yet less than half of all newborns worldwide receive the benefits of immediate breastfeeding.
• Quality of care is grossly lacking even for mothers and babies who have contact with the health system. A UNICEF analysis of 10 high mortality countries indicates that less than 10 percent of babies delivered by a skilled birth attendant went on to receive the seven required post-natal interventions, including early initiation of breastfeeding. Similarly, less than 10 per cent of mothers who saw a health worker during pregnancy received a core set of eight prenatal interventions.
• Those countries with some of the highest number of neonatal deaths also have a low coverage of postnatal care for mothers. Ethiopia (84,000 deaths; 7 per cent coverage); Bangladesh (77,000; 27 per cent); Nigeria (262,000; 38 per cent); Kenya (40,000; 42 per cent).
• Babies born to mothers under the age of 20 and over the age of 40 have higher mortality rates.

Additionally, the report shows that the education level and age of the mother has a significant bearing on the chances of her baby’s survival. Neonatal mortality rates among mothers with no education are nearly twice as high for those with secondary schooling and above.

“The data clearly demonstrate that an infant’s chances of survival increase dramatically when their mother has sustained access to quality health care during pregnancy and delivery,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director. “We need to make sure that these services, where they exist, are fully utilised and that every contact between a mother and her health worker really counts. Special efforts must also be made to ensure that the most vulnerable are reached.”
Inequality, particularly in health care access, remains high in the least developed countries: women from the richest households are almost three times as likely as those from the poorest to deliver their baby with a skilled birth attendant. Despite this, the report suggests that the equity gap in under-5 child mortality is steadily reducing. In every region, except sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of under-five mortality among the poorest sections of society is declining faster than in the richest. More significantly, worldwide, the poor are registering greater absolute gains in child survival than their wealthier compatriots. “It is deeply heartening that the equity gap in child survival is continuing to narrow,” said Rao Gupta. “We need to harness this momentum and use it to drive forward programmes that focus resources on the poorest and marginalised households; a strategy which has the potential to save the largest number of children’s lives.”

###

Note to editors:

About A Promise Renewed

A Promise Renewed is a global movement that seeks to advance Every Woman Every Child – a strategy launched by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mobilize and intensify global action to improve the health of women and children around – through action and advocacy to accelerate reductions in preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths.

The movement emerged from the Child Survival Call to Action convened in June 2012 by the Governments of Ethiopia, India and the United States, in collaboration with UNICEF, to examine ways to spur progress on child survival. It is based on the ethos that child survival is a shared responsibility and everyone – governments, civil society, the private sector and individuals – has a vital contribution to make.

Since June 2012, 178 governments and many civil society organizations, private sector organizations and individuals have signed a pledge to redouble their efforts, and are turning these commitments into action and advocacy. More details on A Promise Renewed are available at www.apromiserenewed.org.

About Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed 2014 Progress Report

This year’s annual report focuses on newborn survival. This report not only presents levels and trends in under-five and neonatal mortality since 1990, but also provides analysis on key interventions for mother and newborn.

About UNICEF UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: http://www.unicef.org/

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook
For further information please contact: Rita Ann Wallace, UNICEF New York, +1 917 213-4034; rwallace@unicef.org  Melanie Sharpe, UNICEF New York, +1 917-485-3344, msharpe@unicef.org Najwa Mekki, UNICEF New York, nmekki@unicef.org, +1917 209 1804

After convening the 2013 African Leadership for Child Survival —A Promise Renewed, a regional forum that called for greater accountability for Africa’s mothers and children, the Government of Ethiopia is leading by example. With support from UNICEF and other partners, the government is implementing a bold strategy that targets the country’s hardest-to-reach mothers and newborns. The three-pronged strategy is scaling up the coverage of community-based new-born care, which includes sepsis treatment; immediate essential newborn care in health centres and district hospitals; and neonatal intensive care units in hospitals.

© UNICEF-ETHA2013_00486-Ose

The combination of innovative, evidence-based strategies and the government’s long legacy of leadership on maternal, newborn and child survival is yielding impressive results. Ethiopia achieved MDG 4 three years ahead of schedule by cutting under-five mortality from 205 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 68 per 1,000 in 2012. Ethiopia’s progress illustrates that countries can achieve dramatic declines in child mortality, despite constrained resources. It puts Ethiopia on a trajectory to bend the curve and achieve a major goal of A Promise Renewed — 20 under-five deaths per 1,000 live births by 2035.

For more information read the story on http://apromiserenewed.org/Ethiopia.html

Sahro Ahmed vaccinates a child in Warder, Somali region, Ethiopia. © UNICEF Ethiopia/2013/Sewunet

Somali Region, Ethiopia, 12 May, 2014 – Ethiopia kicked off a polio vaccination campaign on 3 October 2013, targeting 13 million children across the country following an emergency response that began in the Dollo Ado refugee camps in June 2013. In July 2013, Ethiopia Reports First Wild Poliovirus Case since 2008.

Ayan Yasin, a four-year-old girl, was one of the first confirmed polio cases in Ethiopia. Ayan lives with her father and mother, a typical pastoralist family, in their house, made of tin, wood and woven bed sheets in a remote secluded area three kilometres from Geladi Woreda in Ethiopia’s Somali Region. Living next to the Somalia border means that the family move frequently between Ethiopia and Somalia – making routine immunisation practices difficult.

When Ayan fell sick, her father took her to the nearest hospital in Somalia where he was told there was very little hope. After many visits to various health posts, Hergeisa Hospital finally confirmed she had Polio. “We call this illness the disease of the wind. We know that there is no cure for it, and that it can paralyse and even cause death. My daughter hasn’t died but it has disabled her forever,” says her father.

Close to 50,000 health workers and volunteers and 16,000 social mobilisers have been deployed all over the country as part of a campaign that includes remote and hard to access areas. With the support of the Crown Prince Court, Abu Dhabi, UAE, UNICEF has procured vaccines to support immunisation efforts particularly for children and the refugee population being hosted in the Somali Region. In total, 135,000 vials or 2.7 million doses of bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) were procured to immunise 2.43 million children with a polio vaccine – a critical input to immunisation activities in the Somali Region and Polio high-risk areas. The support from the Crown Prince Court has also helped to airlift the Polio vaccine to hard-to-reach zones of Afder, Gode and Dollo in the Somali Region.

Synchronised cross-border polio outbreak preparedness and response

Parents of Ayan Yasin Confirmed Wild Polio Virus (WPV-1) case, lives in a border close to Somalia, in Degafur rural village, Somali region of Ethiopia. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2013/Sewunet

Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIAs) were conducted in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Djibouti to accelerate progress towards ending Polio in the Horn of Africa. The synchronised SIAs were an outcome of the Horn of Africa Countries Cross-Border Polio Outbreak Preparedness and Response Meeting in Jigjiga, from 21 to 23 May 2014, where Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti agreed to strengthen cross-border collaboration to eradicate polio from the Horn of Africa.

To reinforce support and strengthen Polio eradication efforts in the Somali Region, a high-level delegation consisting of Dr Kebede Worku, State Minister of Health, Mr Abdufatah Mohammed Hassen, Vice President of Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State and Head of the Somali Regional Health Bureau, Dr Pierre M’Pele-Kilebou, WHO Representative to Ethiopia, and Dr Willis Ogutu, Head of UNICEF programme in Somali Region, visited Warder in Dollo Zone, the epicentre of the wild polio virus outbreak in Ethiopia, on 14 June 2014. The delegation, together with the Warder Zonal Administration, launched the ninth round of Supplementary Immunisation Activities (SIAs) in the outbreak zone and formally inaugurated the Zonal Polio Outbreak Command Post, which had been established in April 2014 to improve coordination of response activities.

Sustained interventions to ensure long-term success

While the campaigns to vaccinate children against Polio in the Somali Region have been going well, ensuring long-term success in eliminating the disease will require sustained interventions.

Abdufatah Mohammud Hassen believes the best solution is to immunise every child and ramp up routine immunisation activities in the region. “The campaigns are just to stop the emergency but the main thing that we are doing is to reach every child by strengthening the routine EPI and ensuring that the health facilities have the capacity to respond to the demands of the public”

With the help of developing partners like the Crown Prince Court, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Rotary International European Commission of Humanitarian Department (ECHO) and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF together with the Ministry of Health is continuing its efforts so that young children like Ayan Yasin living in the region are protected from the disabling symptoms of the Polio disease.

By: Dr KesetebirhaneAdmasu, Minister of Health, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Co-Chair, A Promise Renewed and the African leadership for Child Survival Initiative

Dr Peter Salama, UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia

Bruktawit Mulu, left, Health Extension worker, counsels Wagage Finte, 35, with her infant son Eshetu Belish at home in the Kerer Kebele, Machakel distict, West Gojjam zone, Amhara region of Ethiopia, 2 July 2013. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2013/Ose

In 2000, the world made a promise to reduce deaths among children under-five by two thirds by 2015, compared to 1990, the benchmark year for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With less than 460 days left until the deadline, great progress has been made in Ethiopia.

It is worth remembering that, just last year, Ethiopia achieved the child survival millennium development goal (MDG 4), three years ahead of time by cutting under-five mortality from 204per 1000 live births in 1990 to 68 per 1000 live births in 2012.

New UNICEF figures published last week in the Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed report, show that Ethiopia continues to make progress in preventing deaths among children. Presentlythe number of under-five child deaths has fallen to 64per 1000 live births and more children are living to celebrate their fifth birthday.

Ethiopia’s experience and success can show world leaders some important lessons.

The first lesson is about leadership and country ownership. Governments need to lead and countries own the commitment. It may seem obvious but, despite much rhetoric, too often development priorities are still determined in Geneva or Washington rather than by the governments most concerned. By incorporating the MDGs into its national development plan, the Growth and Transformation Plan, and setting ambitious, national targets, the Government of Ethiopia has demonstrated strong leadership and country ownership, and consistently backed its decisions with high level commitment.

Second, evidence needs to determine policy choices. About 10 years ago, in order to address the increasing urban-rural gap in access to health services, the Government of Ethiopia launched the Health Extension Programme. The package of interventions wascarefully tailored to the major causes of mortality and morbidity, with epidemiology determining the priorities.

The early years were challenging, because delivering services to more than 80 million people in a vast and diverse country is not an easy task. However, year after year, the system has becomestronger and stronger, presently deploying over 38,000 government salaried rural and urban health extension workers. Starting from a focus on basic health promotion and disease prevention, incrementally high impact curative services have been integrated into the programme.

Side by side, multi-sectoral agendas have been incorporated to address root causes of childhood disease, such as food and nutrition security and water and sanitation. Community-based treatment of diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria, severe acute malnutrition and, most recently, new-born sepsis and the inclusion of new vaccines are all now central components.

That leads us to the third lesson: that governments need to resource the plan and do so at scale. By putting the 38,000 mainly rural women on the government payroll, the government not only backed up its decision to bring health services to the doorstep of its rural people with real resources, but also sent a strong message that these health extension workers (HEWs) were here to stay. Sustainability was virtually guaranteed. The HEWs have since become a cornerstone of the health system. These young women represent the true heroes, or more precisely heroines, of this MDG story.

Members of the health development army who have come to discuss health service related issues with the Japanese Ambassador and UNICEF Representative to Ethiopia at a health post in Kilte Awlalo District, Tigray Region ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2012/Getachew

Prompted and encouraged by the success of the Health Extension Programme, Ethiopia has recently embarked on a new social mobilisation scheme which is referred to as Health Development Army (HDA).  HDA is a network of women volunteers organised to promote health, prevent disease through community participation and empowerment. The HDA has effectively facilitated the identification of local salient bottlenecks that hinder families from utilising key Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health Services and to come up with locally grown and acceptable strategies for addressing ongoing issues.  To date, the Government has been able to mobilise over three-million women to be part of an organized HDA.

But Ethiopia could not have done this alone. The fourth lesson is that international partners need to support the vision. In the concerted effort to save children’s lives, partners have played a key role. The bilateral government donors, the World Bank and UN agencies, NGOs and civil society, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector, have all played a key role through their funding, programmatic, operational and technical assistance, and their belief that Ethiopia could achieve its goals. Thanks to these coordinated efforts, Ethiopia has slashed child mortality rates. In 1990, 1 in 5 Ethiopian children could be expected to die before reaching the age of 5. Today, the figure is closer to 1 in 15. Well over 1 million children have been saved during this period.

While we deserve to celebrate our accomplishment, we also need to remind ourselves that we have a long way to go, because close to205,000 children under five years of age are still dying every year and nearly 43 per cent of these children are dying in their first 28 days of life. This means that more than 500 Ethiopian children die every day, mostly from preventable diseases. We also need to further address disparities in the delivery of services between rich and poor, urban and rural, pastoralist and agrarian areas, able and disabled and women and men. We also have to work hard to increase the quality of services rendered.

But Ethiopia has shown that a poor country, once only associated with famine and conflict, can become a leader for global health and development. The country is on a trajectory to bend the curve and achieve a major goal of “A Promise Renewed”, which is reducing the level of child death to 20 under-five deaths per 1000 live births by 2035.​  For Africa, there are no longer any excuses.